


This Book Belongs To:

by CloudAtlas



Series: Valentine's Prompts 2015 [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Books, Community: be_compromised, F/M, Libraries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-12
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-12 02:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3340334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudAtlas/pseuds/CloudAtlas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: <i>Bookshop AU. One is bookseller/bookshop owner, the other a customer. Instead of talking one of them tries expressing feelings through the books they buy</i> but then it went a little sideways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Book Belongs To:

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inkvoices](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkvoices/gifts).



> Inspired by the premise of the book S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst

Considering it’s a pretty specialist book, the amazing thing here is that two people are using it at the same time, not that Natasha is having a strange flirtation with someone in the margins of said book. But Maria and Sharon have very strange priorities.

The first thing she sees is – on page 48 – a sticky note pointing to a horrible grammatical error, because she had mentioned some time ago – on page 11, in fact – that she couldn’t stand those. Especially in books published by major publishers and therefore who _should_ know better. On page 87 she has a reply to her musings on state funded terrorist organisations; it looks intelligent and insightful for something written in a library book margin, and she’s interested to read it. 

Just, in a moment; page 113 was what she’s looking out for right now.

She can’t tell the gender of her mystery correspondent from the handwriting – it was too generically messy for easy identification – and she hasn’t asked for a name, nor provided her own. But there’s something about the way they communicate that definitely tips their (non)relationship into ‘heavily flirting’ territory.

On page 113 she’d accidentally name dropped her International Criminal Law professor. It hadn’t been intentional but she’s suddenly desperate to know if the name means anything to her mystery correspondent. 

_Oh so you take her class too? Look close and you’ll see me there too. :P_

It’s written in scratchy blue ballpoint next to a LSE professor talking about The Hague, and Natasha’s heart thumps. She’d mentioned previously that she was studying for her masters, and her mystery correspondent had replied saying they were doing the same. There were no other masters going that required an International Criminal Law component, so only one class ran. There were eighteen people in that class.

Natasha has to already know this person.

She takes out her pen; it’s a dumb sparkly thing with a spider on a spring waving about on top, because Sam thinks he’s hilarious. She writes _Oh yeah?_ and then stops.

If she outright asks, then there’s a possibility that she’ll get a proper answer. But after almost a year of defacing college property, she sort of wants this to continue exactly as it is.

Natasha frowns at the utter ridiculousness of that thought. That would be like turning down someone for a date because them sitting next to you means that you can’t stare at them surreptitiously anymore.

_Redhead. Spider pen. I expect intelligent conversations on human rights law pertaining to criminals in foreign prisons. :P_

She stares at the sentence for a moment before deliberately turning to page 113 and sitting down at her usual desk. She replies to the comments there and writes her own comment on the laws governing state versus non-state warfare in chapter five, before getting down to the proper business of actually studying.

Maria and Sharon pop in while she’s studying, and Sam drags her off to lunch in the basement café. She sees Jennifer from her course in the afternoon and wonders if _she_ could be her mystery correspondent, before being distracted by her newly dyed green hair. 

Then, when she leaves around seven she bumps into Clint, another person from her course, at the door. And as usual, he’s flirty and witty and sort of ridiculously attractive for a man who seems to get into a never ending cycle of bar fights, if his many band aids are any indication. He smiles, and she smiles back while thinking of scratchy blue ballpoint pens, which makes her feel like she’s betraying her mystery correspondent. Which is so dumb.

She doesn’t get a chance to check the book in the next two days, so she ends up going to her next International Criminal Law seminar without checking to see if her mystery correspondent has replied.

Which turns out not to be a problem, because Clint sits down next to her once she’s settled, spider pen in full view, and says; “I am so glad I wasn’t actually flirting with two different people because that would have been awkward. Wanna get coffee and talk about human rights?”


End file.
